iction.--G. ----Eusebius.
ch. vi., relates the public martyrdom of the aged bishop of Emesa, with
two others, who were thrown to the wild beasts, the beheading of Peter,
bishop of Alexandria, with several others, and the death of Lucian,
presbyter of Antioch, who was carried to Numidia, and put to death in
prison. The contradiction is direct and undeniable, for although
Eusebius may have misplaced the former martyrdoms, it may be doubted
whether the authority of Maximin extended to Nicomedia till after the
death of Galerius. The last edict of toleration issued by Maximin and
published by Eusebius himself, Eccl. Hist. ix. 9. confirms the statement
of Lactantius.--M.]

The Asiatic Christians had every thing to dread from the severity of
a bigoted monarch who prepared his measures of violence with such
deliberate policy. But a few months had scarcely elapsed before the
edicts published by the two Western emperors obliged Maximin to suspend
the prosecution of his designs: the civil war which he so rashly
undertook against Licinius employed all his attention; and the defeat
and death of Maximin soon delivered the church from the last and most
implacable of her enemies. [177]

[Footnote 177: A few days before his death, he published a very ample
edict of toleration, in which he imputes all the severities which the
Christians suffered to the judges and governors, who had misunderstood
his intentions.See the edict of Eusebius, l. ix. c. 10.]

In this general view of the persecution, which was first authorized by
the edicts of Diocletian, I have purposely refrained from describing the
particular sufferings and deaths of the Christian martyrs. It would have
been an easy task, from the history of Eusebius, from the declamations
of Lactantius, and from the most ancient acts, to collect a long series
of horrid and disgustful pictures, and to fill many pages with racks and
scourges, with iron hooks and red-hot beds, and with all the variety
of tortures which fire and steel, savage beasts, and more savage
executioners, could inflict upon the human body. These melancholy scenes
might be enlivened by a crowd of visions and miracles destined either to
delay the death, to celebrate the triumph, or to discover the relics of
those canonized saints who suffered for the name of Christ. But I cannot
determine what I ought to transcribe, till I am satisfied how much I
ought to believe. The gravest of the ecclesiastical historians, Eusebius
h